The Redwood Forest
by ThouArtPenguin
Summary: ...Summary inside... The summary (and, frankly, the story) needs a bit of work, but I hope you enjoy it anyhow! :) Rated T for violence, possible gore, cheesy romance moments and jokes/references, and death.


_**I am currently writing and publishing this story on Watt pad (with the same username if you wanna find me (:), so, the things I say at the beginning of these chapters may not make sense, like, "the video on the side is...". Watt pad has this awesome thingy where you can link videos to the side of your stories, so, you can either look up the songs that I mention on Youtube, or, you can go to my watt pad profile and click on the story to see the link on the side. This is for future reference, too. I don't want to have to keep on 'splainin' myself. XD Anyway, enjoy! And thank you soooooo much for reading! :D **_

* * *

_Loki is too dangerous to be kept on Asgard while the Bifrost is rebuilt and wars are in the works. But what can Odin do about it? For starters, he can ask an old friend of Thor's to be Loki's babysitter. And what if she is willing to help? Then Loki will be taken to Midgard. And what if he tries to escape? Well, that's inevitable. He will try. But he is not going to succeed. A little (not so much) dome barrier will make sure of that. And what if he tries to kill his babysitter in hopes that it will dissipate? Once again, he will try. If only he knew about her pet. And... what if... say... I dunno... he falls in love with her? Thennnnnnn... she's screwed. Not literally. Yet. ~ Post Avengers ~_

* * *

**Thank you for clicking on this story! Its been a work in progress for a while now, and I'm still not even close to being done with it. Oh well! Yay for stuff to do! **

**I would like to thank my awesome friend and editor, ReadyForRevolution for helping me with this story, even though she has been majorly busy as of late. I really appreciate her help. :) Go check out her stories! They are amazing! :D (I tried to make him hostile. I TRIED. I'm not sure it worked. Sorry. XD)**

**I do not own anything except some of the plot and half of a couple of characters... it'll make sense later. Its most of Marvels doing. This is just a fanfiction written by a fan. DO NOT COPY OR I WILL FIND YOU. It sounds like an empty threat, but believe me, its anything but. I am not selling anything, but that does not mean free range copywriting on my things. Yes, I am now claiming Loki as my own. Nah, I wish I could do that, but I can't. He's Marvels baby, and I don't think they would let me adopt him. :/ XD**

**ANYWAY, the video on the side, as you can see, is Kings and Queens by 30 Seconds To Mars. The person who made the video put videos of Yosemite National Park together with the song. I found this today, and it made me so happy because it shows the park where this story takes place! :D The song doesn't have too much to do with the story, but I think its still just a nice opening. **

**ENJOY LOVELIES 3**

The journey from Asgard to Midgard through the Tesseract was an unsettling one. It always left the traveler-or in this case, travelers-feeling a bit dizzy, even though Asgardians had pretty thick skulls. Traveling via the Bifrost was much easier, though the landing was a bit harder.

But the Bifrost was currently unavailable. In fact, the Bifrost was one of the reasons for this visit. It was currently under repair, and until it was completed, a certain Asgardian prince would have to wait to be tried for his crimes against the humans.

Of course, there was also the pressing matter of wars raging throughout the nine realms, and until that was taken care of, the god of mischief would have to wait that much longer to return to Asgard; assuming the wars would last much longer than Bifrost repair. It was, afterall, much more complicated to bring peace to _nine_ _realms_ than it was to repair a traveling machine that was mainly used to travel to only one realm.

After the effects of the Tesseract wore off somewhat, Thor hid the Tesseract in the cavity of a tree, hiding it with leaves, twigs, dirt; whatever he could find. It faced away from the dirt road nearby. Thor knew they had to get moving before anyone came around.

"Where are we?" Loki murmured to Thor, his legs slightly hit his cuffed hands as they walked. "And what are we doing here?"

Loki looked up at the massive trees that towered above them from what seemed like miles high. The trunks were bigger than Thor's biceps; bigger than even the Frost Giants. _Redwood trees_, the humans called them. Loki had read about them in one of his many books.

"The Redwood forest?" Loki answered his own question, even though it sounded like another question.

"Yes, brother," said Thor. "In the Cali of Fornia!"

Loki rolled his eyes, but didn't correct him. He figured Thor's puny mind wouldn't be able to wrap around the facts, anyway. He had a smart girlfriend for a reason: to compensate for his lack of a brain.

Thor was quite thankful for his Asgardian armor when a chilly breeze nipped at his cheekbones. Loki hardly seemed to notice. The tips of the leaves had just started changing color; the bright orange fading well with the deep green that matched Loki's Asgardian attire.

"You remember, brother-"

"I try not to." Loki interrupted.

Thor sighed, but was not willing to let Loki steal away his good mood. There was some sort of drug in the air; a vapor of good feeling that flowed through his veins, like the forest was a part of him, and he was not about to let it go. Even Loki could not be immune to it.

"Remember when we were children, and we would run to the forest on the Asgard mountains, just on the outskirts of the kingdom, and use the fallen branches as swords?"

"Somehow we would always impale a horned squirrel or two," Loki smiled and grimaced, turning it into one emotion. "Not the most pleasant of memories to bring up, Thor."

"What is it the Midgardians say? 'Good old times'? That is what I believe those memories to be. Good and old."

"Very old, indeed. In fact, I do believe I see some silver hairs in those feminine locks of yours."

Loki rolled his eyes when Thor reached up and pulled some hair in front of him to get a good look. He laughed as he dropped his hand and looked at Loki. He placed his free hand on his brothers shoulder, which Loki shrugged off and continued walking, just wanting to get to their destination.

He also did not want to do this. He was put where he wanted to be placed, and was unwilling to move, but it was not his decision. Odin was relocating him against his will. Loki walked slower than his usual pace. The later they arrived, the better, though he was quite curious as to just where Thor was taking him. He also wanted to take a closer look around at the large rocks and massive trees and feel like a child again. Nature seemed so large when you were barely four and a half feet tall. He glanced in Thor's direction, hoping that, even with his attention on the path, he wouldn't notice the longing looks he was giving the forest. Little did he know, Thor was replaying the same thoughts in his own head.

"Now, wait a moment, brother," Thor said, gesturing with Mjolnir and checking around them. Loki sighed and started pacing as he waited for Thor to stop dawdling. "Ah, this way."

"I do hope you will refrain from getting us lost, Thor." Loki said in annoyance as Thor probed him with Mjolnir.

"Fret not, Loki. We are almost there."

"Delightful."

In truth, Loki did not know where he was going. Odin preferred to leave him in the dark, unknowing of what was to come. Before Thor and Loki had made their journey, Loki pulled all sorts of little tricks to try and get Thor to give him even the smallest detail of where he was headed, and he succeeded. Sort of.

All he could get out of Thor was, "She'll take care of you."

That got under Loki's skin. It was always easy to trick Thor into thinking that Loki was thinking and doing one thing, when really, he was thinking and doing the complete opposite. He was the professor of misdirection; the conductor of an impossible orchestra. But when he wanted to know certain information that could potentially be important, he could hardly get Thor to utter a word, and when he did, it meant nothing. Absolutely nothing.

And now, he was on his way to some mysterious place that only _brother dear_ and _father darling_ knew about.

"Why?" Loki suddenly asked, taking Thor off-guard a bit. He had been distracted, constantly checking around for any turns he might have missed.

"Why?"

"Why are we here?" Loki elaborated.

"You know very well," Thor stopped and turned to look at Loki. "We cannot keep an eye on you while we rebuild the Bifrost; and we especially cannot keep you around while we make peace with other realms, so you will be watched over here, on Midgard."

Loki _tisk_ed, resting his weight on one leg. "The very place I came to rule not too long ago. The All-Father did not think his plan through."

"Father is the wisest man in all the nine realms. He has a reason for all that he does." Thor answered calmly. Thor had started walking again by this time.

Loki hesitated, pondering if it was as good a time as any to make a run for it, but decided against it when Thor turned to look over his shoulder at him. Perhaps chucking a stone at Thor's big head would aid him better in his endeavor to escape rather than just wait for him to become distracted again.

As Loki looked around for a nice looking rock to come along, he also continued to look around at the massive trunks. While most trees looked like they had been splayed out neatly, as if they had been planted by human hands, others sat in random spots, looking more natural. Rays of light peeked through the leaves, giving what little warmth it could to Thor's cold face as the chilly breeze continued to kiss his cheekbones.

Loki was also tempted to challenge Thor in a Trunk Snapping competition, and while Thor would be showing off his great strength, that's when he would run as fast as he could.

But instead, a different question formed on his lips.

"What does Odin hope to accomplish by sending me to be cared for by a mortal _babysitter_?" He practically spat the last word.

Thor grinned, even though Loki could not see it, since Thor was just a few steps ahead. "It will only be until the Bifrost is complete, and then, hopefully, you can come home." Home. That word was filled with love and concern and hope. Just what Loki hated. Especially today.

"That's reassuring," Loki said, sarcasm dripping from his words.

Thor stopped in a small open space, surveying the area for a few moments. Loki looked around as well. Upon not seeing anything, the trail having seemed to end, he looked to Thor in annoyance.

"Don't tell me... We're lost."

"Of course not, we are just..."

"We're lost. Good. Great. Splendid. Marvelous. Best thing that has happened all day. Absolutely wonderful. I am sure Odin will be so pleased-"

"Loki, shut up," Thor looked up and down and around. "Last I checked... 'small right turn at the big, fat trees'-"

"There are a lot of 'big, fat trees'-."

"-_the_ 'big, fat trees'-"

"-big enough to put out your ego-you know, that is not too bad of an idea."

"-ah! I know where we're going." Thor sent somewhat of a cocky grin to his sibling, having found the area they were in quite accurate to the description he had been given earlier. The tall red trees, the needles that hung and occasionally fell from the delicate branches, and the faint dirt path etched into the ground. It was hardly noticeable, but Thor was quite keen, despite Loki's obvious thoughts contradicting this.

Loki looked around again with furrowed eyebrows. "Really? This is it?" He continued to look around, before setting his eyes on Thor, thinking he had finally lost it.

"Where is my babysitter?" Loki asked, pretending to be disappointed.

Thor beamed at him. Finally, he faced towards the middle of two Giant Sequoias, put his fingers in his mouth and whistled.

Loki straightened his posture a bit in surprise as he watched the air between the two trees vibrating and rippling and then fading away, revealing a small, wooden cabin.

"How lovely," Loki said, his sarcasm still plain in his voice.

"I agree," Thor grinned, ignoring his brothers negative mood as he marched in the direction of the cabin.

Loki reluctantly followed, once again contemplating to make a run for it, when a sound within the cabin grabbed his attention.

They stopped in front of one of the windows to the cabin and peeked inside to see the lit rooms. The electrical light bounced off the girls copper hair as she kneeled on the kitchen floor, causing the locks to shine like a new penny lying on the ground on a sunny day. The television served as background noise and there was a pile of clean clothes on the couch that she knew she would have to get to sooner or later. Water poured through the faucet, but she ignored it as she picked up glass shards from a mug she had just dropped.

It was the third glass she broke within the last two weeks. She knew not the exact time her guests would arrive; she just knew that it would be soon, and she was not looking forward to it. Her nerves were getting the best of her, and her thoughts were very distracting. She could hardly get anything done without breaking, dropping, or spilling something. She deposited the remains of her mug into the trash can, wiped her hands on her dark blue jeans, and went back to washing the dishes, and stressing out about visitors from another realm.

"Found your babysitter," Thor joked as they watched the back of a woman as she cleaned.


End file.
